Daniel Rudisha: Tale of two very close co-wives
Daniel Matasi Rudisha (centre) and his wives Naomi (right: mother of David Rudisha) and Roseline at their home in Kilgoris, Narok county on February 12, 2011. PHOTO | FILE |
What you need to know:
- A beautiful lady with long, wavy hair, David Rudisha’s mother Naomi was incidentally an athlete of no mean repute, in her time having excelled in 400 metres hurdles.
That the two Daniel Rudisha co-wives were extremely close became apparent when they joined us at the Kilgoris family home when I interviewed the old man in 2011.
Looking, for all the world, like two giggling schoolgirls despite their advanced ages, they stuck close together at all times.
In the earlier days Naomi was a teacher like her husband, having been trained at the Shanzu Teachers College at the coast, while Roseline was a trained nurse and later worked for a Catholic mission.
BEAUTIFUL LADY
A beautiful lady with long, wavy hair, David Rudisha’s mother Naomi was incidentally an athlete of no mean repute, in her time having excelled in 400 metres hurdles.
With a quick chuckle, her husband explained that after proposing to her decades earlier she had given him one condition: she would only get married to him if he also married her bosom childhood friend Roseline.
"They could not be separated," he said, "and that’s how I ended up becoming a polygamist, following in the footsteps of my late dad Matasi, who had more than 20 wives.”
